The following lesson is from the KickRickulum Tabernacle II curriculum. This curriculum can be purchased from kidology.org
The High Priest - Caught in the middle - Last Sunday, we spoke on the high priest and the garments the he wore.
Below is a list of things we put our faith in and trust in, things we rely on:
- In our cars - Bridges - We rely on bridges to hold us up as we cross them. Traffic lights - We rely on them to be red for the other lane as we go through a green light. Seat belts - We rely on them to work properly if we're ever in a wreck. If any of these things failed, we would be in danger and could even be killed. It's critical that these things not fail.
- At home - A light bulb - we need light to see where we're going or to do homework. Electricity - we need it to have light and most everything else. Indoor plumbing - we need to shower and go to the bathroom. Without indoor plumbing, we'd have to build an outhouse (stinky!!) and you'd have to carry in water to take a bath. You wouldn't be able to shower. If any of these things failed, it probably wouldn't be dangerous, but it would be very inconvenient. It's not that critical, but you wouldn't want to do without these things for long.
- Stuff needed for your moms and dads to work - The car - we have to have reliable transportation to work. It would be bad to have to walk everywhere. The alarm clock - We need to be able to get up in time to be ready to leave in time to be to work on time. The computer or computer printer - lots of jobs require these things to be working - with internet - in order to get things done efficiently. My job would be nuts without a computer and a printer. If any of these things fail, your parents would have a bad day at best and lose their job at worst. So, failure of any of these items could result in just being annoying or it could result in your parents losing their jobs and you have to move or become homeless. That would be very bad.
- What about medicine? If you're diabetic, you need insulin. If you ever have had an organ (heart, lung, kidney) transplant, you need medicine to keep your body from rejecting the organ. If you have an infection, you need antibiotics to help you get well quickly. For some, failure to get medicine could be fatal. For others, it just means taking longer to recover.
I said all that to compare how it was to have a high priest. The high priest's job once a year was to go into the Holy of Holies to make atonement (covering sin) for all the people of Israel. Failure in making atonement in any way meant that everyone in Israel would not be right with God. There would be sin in their lives. So it was dangerous if the priest failed to make atonement for the people. It wasn't just an inconvenience, like the computer not working or having to change a lightbulb. It was more like a bridge failing while a car is driving over it, or not getting life saving medicine when you needed it. It was fatal! Still, the high priest was just a man. He could fail. But look at what Hebrews says about Jesus:
"So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." Hebrews 4:14-16
Jesus is OUR high priest! He doesn't fail! He made atonement for us once and for all on the cross. Jesus is like a bridge that never fails or a medicine that you take once and your cured.
This Week's Memory Verse: "He had to be one of us, so that he could serve God as our merciful and faithful high priest and sacrifice himself for the forgiveness of our sins." Hebrews 2:17 - if you can say this memory verse this Sunday, you get 2 pieces of candy
This Week's Gross Game Question: Who does Hebrews say is our High Priest? Write down (or have someone write it for you) the correct answer on a piece of paper and write your name on it for 2 pieces of candy and be entered in the drawing for who gets to play the gross game.
The Holy Spirit - In order to explain what the Holy Spirit is, we need to discuss the Trinity. Click here to see a diagram that helps us understand the Trinity. The Trinity is God in three persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All are a different part of who God is and all are worthy of worship.
The best way I can think of to descibe the Trinity in a way to help you understand it is to compare it to the three states of water - Water (liquid), Ice (solid), and fog or water vapor (gas). All are water, just in different forms.
The three states of water are very useful to us. We use water to drink and play in. We use ice to make our drinks cold and make fruit smoothies. We breathe in water vapors from a vaporizer to clear our sinuses.
We need God in each form, too. We need God, the Father who created everything and governs everything. We need Jesus who saves our souls and governs everything as He sits at the right hand of God. We need the Holy Spirit who guides us to all truth and reminds us of everything Godly.
The Holy Spirit is a tool for different needs:
- The Holy Spirit is a tool for praise - Acts 2:4, Acts 2:11 - Speaking in tongues is only one gift of the Holy Spirit. There are other gifts, such as prophecy, healing, etc. (see I Corinthians 12). In this example, people heard others that they knew couldn't speak their languages speaking fluently in their languages about the wonderful things that God has done. This undoubtedly drew these men to God. Can you think of ways that other gifts of the Spirit can praise God?
- The Holy Spirit is a tool for prayer - Romans 8:26 - The Holy Spirit helps us in any area of weakness - just pray for help. Like when you aren't brave enough to do the right thing. In the area of prayer, the Holy Spirit will help you pray what you need to, whether you pray in tongues or not. Praying in tongues is the Holy Spirit praying through you.
- The Holy Spirit is a tool for power - Acts 1:8 - The Holy Spirit gives you the power to be whomever He needs you to be, including being a bold person who tells his/her friends about Jesus.
- Sometimes, you need someone to help you, not just a tool. Our memory verse this week - John 14:26 - tells us that the Holy Spirit is our helper. Having the Holy Spirit with us is like having Jesus with us and He is always helping us. We can't serve God without Him.
This week's Memory Verse - John 14:26 "But when the Father sends the advocate as my representative - that is, the Holy Spirit - he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you."
This week's Gross Game question - How are the Trinity and water alike?
The following is lesson 1 from the Tabernacle II curriculum from Kickrickulum.
This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This week we move from the inner courts of the tabernacle and into the place behind a veil (curtain), a place forbidden for anyone to go, except the priests.
Can you imagine being an Israelite and seeing the curtain but never seeing the inside? Oh, sure, the priests could describe it to you, but I would want to see it, to touch it, to experience God's presence. It would be so sad to not get to go any further than the brazen altar. I'd stare at that veil and long to go in there!
What's behind that curtain? Well, there's the lampstand, the table of shewbread and the altar of incence, which are beautiful and I'd love to see them, but the thing that I would want more than anything is to be with God. God's presence was behind that veil. When Jesus came and died for our sins, the temple veil tore in two. This veil was not like a one layer curtain like might be in your kitchen or bathroom, it was a 6 inch thick curtain. I doubt that even those strong guys on the Power Team could rip that temple veil! The veil being torn in two represented that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and that anyone who wanted to be in God's presence could! So, we don't have to be sad and just stare at that veil. We can be in God's presence whenever we want to. All we have to do is seek him in prayer, worship, Bible reading and church attendance.
The Lampstand. This week we're gonna talk about the lampstand and it's significance. Click here to see a picture of the lampstand. The lampstand was actually hammered out of one piece of gold - it wasn't pieced together. When I look at the pictures of the lampstands, it just amazes me that God gave someone the ability to make that. The seven lamps were not candles. They were little cups filled with olive oil with flax or linen wicks inside. The High Priest had to trim the wicks every morning and evening and add oil to keep the lamps burning continously - they were never to go out.
The lampstand represented God's light and presence to them. That is why it was so important to keep burning. The light that we have today comes from Jesus. When we believe in Jesus and have him inside of us - in our heart - He can shine through us for others to see! Just like the priests were to never let the light of the lampstand go out, we're never to let the light of Jesus go out inside of us. We let people see Jesus and witness to them by the way we live our lives every day.
How can we let our light go out? By making wrong choices, doing or saying what we know is wrong. Disobeying, being mean, selfish or hurting others - these things cause our light to go out.
When we live for Jesus and do what pleases him our light shines brightly - like a city on a hill, you can't miss us!
Gross Game Question - What does the lampstand represent? - Get two pieces of candy and be put in the drawing to play the gross game this Sunday for writing the correct answer and your name on a piece of paper and bringing it this Sunday. This week's Gross Game is titled "Cheeto Head" and involves cheetos, of course, and whipped cream!
This Week's Memory Verse - "You are the light of the world - like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14 - Get two pieces of candy for saying this verse by memory this Sunday